Absolute Death Game
Chapter 40 Encampment

Having made up his mind, Xiao Buli immediately sprang into action. He focused on inquiring about skills and job advancements. Many of the NPCs in the village all had some unique skills, but they were basically of the non-teachable type, much like Physician Ji's Qigong Disease-Curing Technique. However, as long as he asked the right questions, he could easily dig out the origins of these skills.

There were generally two ways to acquire these skills: one was learning from a high-level NPC, and the other was inadvertently obtaining a Skill Book and learning from it.

It seemed that Skill Books were quite prevalent in this game, even NPCs had access to them. Moreover, like players, NPCs could also learn a new skill instantly upon using a Skill Book, which could be considered a bug-like existence.

As for job advancements, Xiao Buli also had a rough grasp of the situation. Mage Professions were especially rare in this game, even to the point of being extremely hard to replace. Most of the basic professions were Strength or Agility-based, such as Axemen, Swordsmen, Archers, and Gunners.

These professions, after meeting certain conditions, could advance to more advanced jobs like Berserkers, Sword Saints, Divine Archers, and Mounted Gunners. Plus, some professions had several possible advancements.

Different basic professions, when combined with other basic ones, could produce new jobs. For instance, a Swordsman combined with a Beast Tamer could give rise to the Ranger profession, and an Archer combined with a Mounted Gunner could produce a Military General. It could be said that there was a countless number of professions, and no one knew exactly how many there were.

Xiao Buli's goal was still a Mage Profession. After all, the skills of Swordsmen and Archers, even if learned, seemed of little use in reality. He couldn't very well open a martial arts school, and even if he did, it would be for teaching boxing and kicking. Swordsmanship and archery were really not that useful, other than for a few hobbyists' entertainment.

But if he could learn a Spell, that would be incredible. Even the simplest Spell, if brought back to reality, would fall into the category of superpowers.

If he couldn't replace a Mage Profession, he could reluctantly settle for jobs like assassin, Qigong Master, or Martial Monk. These professions often had some supernatural abilities. For example, a Qigong Master could emit Qigong Waves and use Internal Energy for healing and defense. Assassins could utilize shadows to Stealth and disappear, and Martial Monks could seal acupoints.

Such abilities would be pretty great in reality, and learning just one could be of lifelong use.

By the second day, the caravan had finally finished its harvesting and was ready to set off back to Nine Dragons City. Xiao Buli and the other two naturally couldn't miss this opportunity. They approached the owner of the caravan, asking to travel together, and after paying a fee of five silver coins each, the caravan leader agreed to let them ride together in a carriage.

What came next was quite simple: they just needed to leave their characters on the carriage and follow along. According to the caravan owner, it would take no more than two days to reach Nine Dragons City.

Although after getting on the carriage their characters would move with the convoy, the three of them still did not dare to be careless, as death carried serious consequences. Therefore, each of them stayed in front of their computer screens, watching closely, with Xiao Buli being the most focused, for reasons that went without saying.

Since it was laden with goods, the carriage wasn't much faster than walking, and definitely not comparable to the one that Li Jian and others had, which had raced quickly. It took more than an hour of travel before they gradually reached the spot where they had parted ways with Li Baocheng.

Informed in advance, Li Baocheng was already waiting on the side of the road and ran up to the caravan as soon as he saw it.

Fortunately, since the quest had already been picked up, the caravan was unaware of Li Bioacheng's situation. Therefore, after collecting ten silver coins, they allowed him to join. Li Baocheng finally breathed a sigh of relief; he couldn't dare to log on these past days for fear of his master's pursuit.

The caravan wasn't particularly large or small, with a total of seven carriages. The people involved, including the drivers, merchants, accountants, and helpers, numbered over a dozen. However, these were weak NPCs in combat. The real protection for the caravan came from twelve fully armed guards, four gunners, four shield and sabre wielders, and four archers.

Besides them, there was a Guard Captain riding a tall horse, clad in chainmail, and holding a large spear. This Guard Captain's profession seemed to be an Advanced Military General, radiating a faint blue glow. As soon as Xiao Buli got near the Guard Captain, a 'common hatred and anger' BUFF appeared on his icon, which added +5 Armor and expanded the realm range by +10 meters.

It looked like an aura Skill given by the Guard Captain.

On the road, they encountered numerous Walking Corpses and Corpse-eating Dogs, but these monsters posed no threat under the caravan guard's attacks. They continued to walk into the evening. As the greenery became more abundant and the roads more rugged, they gradually reached the edge of the black wasteland.

"The map in this game is really huge," Xiao Buli thought. He opened the map to look, and the areas they had traveled through were marked. They had been walking in the black wasteland for over three hours but still hadn't left its boundaries.

Examining the scale of the black wasteland in relation to the main continent, he found the wasteland to be terrifyingly small, occupying just a tiny bright circle on the lower left corner of the map—probably less than one percent of the entire landmass. Yet, this was already almost as big as the entirety of World of Warcraft's map. It was hard to imagine just how vast the entire game map was.

As time approached five o'clock, the caravan showed no signs of stopping, making the four of them somewhat anxious.

"Li, what would happen to our characters if we went offline now? Would they continue to move with the caravan?"

"Of course not. Here's what we'll do: I'll mention it to the higher-ups, and you can work overtime tonight."

"Overtime? Is that okay?" Sun Bin asked hesitantly, because Li Jian had always seemed like the kind of person who strictly followed the rules, which made Sun Bin a bit surprised.

Li Jian said, "Didn't I tell you earlier? We can't do overtime except under special circumstances. But now we are in a special situation. You might not know this, but even for us advanced players, going on a long journey is quite troublesome. This game basically lacks instant travel methods like Teleportation Portals or griffin planes.

Players mostly rely on riding horses or driving carriages to traverse the map bit by bit. Horses and carriages are convenient but only work on flat roads and plains. Once we enter dense woods or mountainous and swampy terrains, we have to walk. Sometimes we have to search for a safe campsite until midnight, so it's completely reasonable for you to work the night shift in situations like these."

Understanding this, the group felt reassured and continued following the caravan. They marched on until past seven o'clock. As the game world darkened, the caravan reached the edge of the Misty Forest. The dense mountain woods unfolded layer upon layer, and from the depths of the night, occasional heart-wrenching howls of wild beasts echoed.

"If we continue forward, we'll enter the Misty Forest. It's not peaceful in there, so we shouldn't move tonight. We'll depart early tomorrow morning."

Following the caravan leader's command, the convoy came to a halt and formed a horseshoe-shaped semicircle behind a hillock, with the caravan guards springing into action. Some went to replace firewood while others arranged the campsite.

Xiao Buli found that he could use his harvesting ability on the dry weeds in the wilderness, so he gathered a large bundle of dried grass and brought it back to the camp.

"Alright, I'll have someone keep watch tonight, so you can all get a good night's sleep," the caravan master announced.